The Manchurian Candidate (1962 film)

For the novel by Richard Condon, see The Manchurian Candidate. For the 2004 film, see The Manchurian Candidate (2004 film)

The Manchurian Candidate is a film adapted from the satirical 1959 novel written by Richard Condon. It was directed by John Frankenheimer

The term "Manchurian Candidate," spawned by the book and 1962 film, refers to an individual who has undergone brainwashing and/or mind control with the intent of creating a "Sleeper" personality within that individual.

While a popular fictional trope, and while there have been well-attested efforts at brainwashing and mind control (such as MKULTRA) the general scientific consensus is that the creation of a "sleeper agent" such as the type shown in the film was not possible then, is still not possible, and is not likely to be possible in the near future. See the respective articles for more details.

1962 film

During the Korean War and the Red Scare, the Soviets, having developed a technique based on "brainwashing" and akin to hypnosis, whereby a person could be snapped into and out of a trance, ordered to do things with full compliance, and have no memory of such actions afterwards, kidnap a patrol of U.S. soldiers fighting in Korea. Taken to Manchuria in the People's Republic of China to be brainwashed, the soldiers are covertly released back to the American forces. To cover their tracks, the Communists implant false memories in the American soldiers' minds and provide a subconscious trigger whereby the soldier could be snapped into and out of hypnosis. Even after full reintegration with American society, they have no knowledge of their experience. (In the late 1950's several former POW's captured in Korea returned to the U.S. with narrations of being "brainwashed" by Communist forces. Perhaps the best known of these soldiers was USAF Col. Walker Mahurin, one of the leading F-86 jet fighter aces of the Korean War. ^*)

Major Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra), Sergeant Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey) and the rest of their platoon believe Shaw saved their lives in combat, for which he receives the Medal of Honor when they return to the US. They also believe he was much-beloved in the unit, when in fact he was despised as cold and arrogant. After the war is over, Marco begins to have a recurring nightmare in which Raymond kills two of his fellow comrades. When he learns that another platoon member has been having the same dream, he sets out to uncover the mystery.

The Communists intend to use Raymond as a test sleeper agent and, using the queen of diamonds in a deck of playing cards as a subconscious trigger, compel him to follow their orders, which he doesn't remember afterwards. Raymond is controlled by none other than his own domineering mother (Angela Lansbury), who is working with, but not for, the Communists.

She is the driving force behind her husband and Raymond's step-father, Senator John Iselin (James Gregory), a bombastic McCarthy-like demagogue. She uses Raymond to assassinate another senator, the main opponent to Iselin's vice-presidential candidacy (in the process, Raymond also kills his own wife, the senator's daughter). Mrs. Iselin then primes Raymond to assassinate their party's presidential candidate at the nomination convention. In the aftermath, Senator Iselin would make a fiery speech (prepared ahead of time) and become the presidential nominee. The assassination would cause mass hysteria, paving the way to the White House and justifying emergency powers for the new president.

Janet Leigh plays Marco's love interest. A bizarre conversation on a train between her character and Marco has been interpreted by some as implying that Leigh's character, Eugenie, is working for the Communists to activate Marco's programming, much as the queen of diamonds activates Shaw's. Frankenheimer, however, in the DVD commentary, points out that he had no idea whether or not "Rosie" was supposed to be an agent of any sort; he merely lifted the train conversation straight from the Condon novel, in which there is no such implication.

Marco, however, figures out a way to block Raymond's subconscious triggers. Although Marco's attempts seem to fail at first, Raymond regains control over himself at the party convention and kills the Iselins, and then himself.

Critical response

Angela Lansbury was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. The film earned another nomination for Best Editing.

The film is consistently in the top 100 on the Internet Movie Database's list of top 250 films (#69 as of May 2006). It was #67 on the American Film Institute's "100 Years, 100 Movies," and #17 on its "100 Years, 100 Thrills" lists.

The film received a rare 100% rating from Rotten Tomatoes Prominent American film critic Roger Ebert ranks The Manchurian Candidate as an exemplary "Great Film", declaring that it "is inventive and frisky, takes enormous chances with the audience, and plays not like a 'classic' but as a work as alive and smart as when it was first released."[http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20031207/REVIEWS08/40802006/1023

The Kennedy Assassination

Hollywood rumor holds that Sinatra removed the film from distribution after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, though the evidence for this is conflicting. Certainly the film was rarely shown in the decades after 1963. But it did appear as part of the Thursday Night Movies series on CBS on September 16, 1965 and again later that season. It was also shown twice on NBC, once in the spring of 1974 and again in the summer of 1975. Sinatra didn't acquire distribution rights to The Manchurian Candidate until the late 1970s. He was involved in a theatrical re-release of the film in 1988. In recent years (i.e., 2000-06), the film has very rarely been shown on television, according to listings in TV Guide. The only notable appearance was on PBS in 2004, shortly before the remake of the movie was released.

2004 version

Director Jonathan Demme adapted Condon's novel into a film which starred Denzel Washington, Liev Schreiber and Meryl Streep. Demme's adaptation made substantial changes to Condon's story (replacing Cold War tension with an anti-corporation perspective), but the film received generally positive reviews. However, it performed poorly at the box office.

2007 version

It has been rumored that there will be a 2007 version of this film.

External links

Storyline and key dialogue excerpts
The Search for the "Manchurian Candidate", by John D. Marks
Mind Control: The Rosetta Stone of the JFK Assassination, by Jerry Leonard
Bluebird: Deliberate Creation of Multiple Personality by Psychiatrists, by Colin A. Ross
McCarthyism and the Movies

Botschafter der Angst | Un Crime dans la tête (film, 1962) | השליח ממנצ'וריה